Athelstan was an interesting, conflicted, beautiful character on The Vikings. I don't know how many of you watch the series, but I have been addicted since the first episode. I had come to identity with Athelstan's conflict. Not his conflict between his loyalty and faith in Thor or Odin and the Father of Jesus Christ, but the conflict between seemingly conflicting states. His, as mentioned, was between a relationship with the Viking Gods or the God of Jesus Christ.
The nature of my conflict was slightly different, but nevertheless a conflict. It was the conflict between being in relationship with the world, as it is, with separation, its anxiety, its ups and downs, the addiction to the emotional roller-coaster ride, to polarity. Up one day, down the next. On the other hand, it was the attractiveness and the peace of being at home in Christ Consciousness. Joining heart and mind in oneness, uninterrupted focus on being at One. That conflict, like any, is intensified when one can clearly distinguish, in feeling and experience, between the two states.
Athelstan had made peace with Thor and Odin, and he made a choice, one that preceded, as choices always do, the experience of being born again, or the resurrection into the light. When Flokki arrived, Athelstan was at peace with his choice and his experience.
It is clear. The old self must die in order that the new self may be born. It seems an easy choice doesn't it? -between lack and limitation, sadness, conflict and discord, and the eternal peace of Love's embrace. Not so.
Michael Hirst, the writer and producer of The Vikings, in response to the death of Athelstan, said that the kind of internal conflict Athelstan was experiencing must have a resolution. It had to end. A Course in Miracles says as much: there is a limit on pain, and sooner or later, the spirit seeks relief. Athelstan has merged back into non-physical, and that's that. So be it.
It's time to get in the garden, one of my favorite spaces, and one of my favorite times of the year. I am not a summer person, and gardening is the only thing that I can really appreciate about the summer. I'm just not a happy camper in the heat and humidity of Philadelphia, but the garden and the joy I experience in it, overshadows all of that discomfort. I've got plenty of projects that I want to get underway. I bought wood to construct a garden arbor last year, but never got to it. That was mainly because I didn't clear all the ivy from the back of the yard. It turned out to be a labor intensive endeavor. I have resolved to make clearing the remainder of the ivy the first thing I do after starting my seeds. I have purple grass that I planted last year along the driveway, and it grew so fast, that the plants are taller than the wall that borders the driveway. They will have to moved to the back. Where, I do not know. Hopefully the garden spirits will pick out a spot.
Then there is the inside! I started last year working on the foundation of the front of my house because there are so many cracks in it. It's an older house, and it just needs some tender loving care which it hasn't gotten from its previous two owners. Let me tell you, cement work is no joke. No wonder masons charge so much. I'm not mad at them. But I will see the project through. It may take another year to finish all the cement work, but I am up to it. I am the woman for the job.
I love my house. It is my sanctuary, my refuge, my temple of solitude and peace. And I have no doubt that it was given to me to heal, and as it is healed, so am I. It's a great exchange. Giving and receiving is one in truth.
What else is up?
A show in December, 2015. I'm three-quarters finished with the pieces. I have two more to complete this summer and I'm ready. I'm averaging about two shows per year, and with that, I am satisfied, and grateful.
Books. A stack that I have to get to. So it will be many evenings, after working on the house and in the garden, of gin and tonics and some good reads. Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, been on the reading agenda for over a year. Charles Eisenstein's The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know is Possible; Resistance Against Empire, by Derrick Jensen; Hemenway's Gaia's Garden, all about permaculture and the urban gardener.Relationships! My children. I'll hang with my daughter and daughter-in-law, my grandchildren. Take in tapas and the Eastern Market in DC. with my son. Visit sisters and brothers. Take in a wedding and there's plenty birthdays to celebrate!
It's a divine unfolding going on here.
